And Miles to Go
by X-parrot
Summary: Because into every life, a little snow must fall. To say nothing of hypothermia, avalanches, and ice demons...it's going to be one of those days. [complete]
1. Part the First

This ficcie is being written for my imouto in honor of her birthday. A few warnings must be presented upon the outset. Firstly, I am new to Saiyuki, having only seen up to episode 20 at this point (and wasn't that a wonderful place to stop...grrr!!) While I usually try to write as in character as possible, my lack of familiarity may lead to inconsistencies. Feel free to correct me. 

This is an exercise in hurt/comfort, by which I mean it will involve much pain inflicted upon our beloved Sanzou-ikkou, and very little in the way of actual plot. The PG-13 rating is due to Sanzo and Gojyo using the language one expects of them in such situations. Lastly, there will be no yaoi. Not that I have anything at all against the boys boinking; it simply doesn't have a place in this story. 

Anyone who's still reading--please enjoy! 

* * *

And Miles to Go 

X-parrot 

_Really_, thought Gojyo, _this is all Sanzo's fault. _

It had been the monk's decision to take the pass, after all. The innkeeper had clearly said there was a road around the mountains, maybe a few miles out of their way--or a few hundred--but a road, at any rate, which Hakuryuu could have handled, no problem. But the inestimable Sanzo-sama decreed that they should traverse the mountains directly, though the innkeeper had said, quite clearly, that the way was steep and the pass treacherous. 

He had also mentioned the recent snowstorms, but even Gojyo thought he had been exaggerating. These parts were warm, after all; these people probably panicked over anything worse than morning frost. The inch of snow on the ground hardly bore out his stories, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky when they had set out that morning. The innkeeper had told them of a hunter's shelter in the high reaches, near the pass. "A fast pace will get you there by sunset," he had said, "just a cave above the waterfall, but there's a log door to keep bears out. You can't miss it." 

Which might have been true, had they been able to see more than an arm's length ahead. The man, damn him, had said _nothing_ about walls of white that descended with the force of a desert sandstorm, howling like all the wolves in China together and ripping at them with fangs of wind and ice. The snowflakes' dance was thicker than fog off the ocean. Youkai vision could penetrate deep darkness, but not this blinding, whirling white. Gojyo could barely make out Hakkai, trudging in front of him through the growing snowdrifts; he might have lost him entirely were it not for the steady glow of Hakuryuu's eyes. The snow dragged at his pants, clumping in the folds of fabric. His fingers were cramped with cold and he thrust his hands deeper into his jacket pockets in a vain search for warmth; he had given up on ever feeling his toes again twenty feet back, or was it fifty? Hell, at this point he couldn't even tell if they still were climbing; the snow made up and down irrelevant. 

Head lowered to shield his eyes from the wind whipping his hair around, his forehead bumped against something--walked into a tree, he thought, then realized it was more pliant. Hakkai had stopped abruptly--because Sanzo had, apparently, to form a little knot in the nonexistent path. Goku tugged Gojyo down into their impromptu huddle. 

"Do any of you see anything?" Sanzo asked, having to shout to be heard over the wind even a foot from their ears. 

Hakkai shook his head, ice-caked bangs swinging over his eyes. "Nothing!" 

"I'm hungry!" Goku yelled, as if that were any great surprise. 

"We eat when we find the cave!" Sanzo shouted back at him, but Gojyo saw him pass the kid a bun--probably frozen, but Goku gnawed it happily anyway. Gojyo knew he didn't like snow, any more than Hakkai or Sanzo cared for rain, but he was handling this disaster with high spirits. He would have teased the monkeyboy about his appetite, but he knew if he unlocked his jaw his teeth would be chattering too hard for insults. 

"Hakkai," Sanzo asked, "can Hakuryuu fly through this?" 

"No!" Hakkai denied. The little dragon had wrapped itself around his neck to hide in his collar, its wings closed tightly against the cold. 

"_Ch_'," the monk swore--impressive that it could be heard over the wind. "Maybe we should make camp." 

"Are you nuts?" Gojyo shrieked. "We'll be b-b-buried by nightfall!" And didn't he sound like a stammering idiot. 

He was surprised when an arm wrapped around his shoulder and pulled him close. "Where's your hat?" Hakkai demanded in his ear. 

"L-l-lost it." Some weeks ago, actually, and not entirely by accident. It had been a damn ugly hat. Orange knit clashed horribly with his hair. 

Something was jammed over his head and pulled down over his ears, muffling the wind slightly and shocking him with its warmth. "We'll have to get you a new one," Hakkai said, as he ran his gloved hands through his now-bare hair. Then he shouted across their little circle, "Sanzo, if we don't make camp now, we better get moving again!" 

"Move where?" Sanzo snapped back, and Gojyo couldn't tell if his shout was sarcastic, or simply flat. 

"There!" Goku cried. He had stood up from their circle and turned in place. Now he pointed into the whiteness. "I just saw something!" 

"GOKU!" Sanzo hollered, but it was too late. Goku had bounded from their huddle in the direction he had indicated. His orange cloak was bright against the white, and then he had taken another step and was swallowed by the blinding snow. 

"Get back here, _bakazaru_!" roared Sanzo, but only the wind answered. 

The wind, and Hakuryuu. "Kyuuu!" squealed the dragon, and then in a burst of white wings and contrary to its master's expectations, it launched itself from Hakkai's shoulder and also vanished into the storm. 

Hakkai stood, but Sanzo grabbed him. "He can't have gone far," Hakkai said, as calmly reasonable as he would have been on a sunny beach. "He'll find Goku--I'll find them both, and we'll wait for you ahead. All right?" 

Sanzo barely hesitated. Gojyo thought he saw violet eyes flick down to him--trick of the snow?--and then the monk said, "We'll be coming." 

Hakkai nodded, and disappeared in three long strides. Then Sanzo had grabbed Gojyo's arm and roughly hauled him to his feet. "Move it," the monk growled. "We're far enough behind already." 

* * *

to be continued...   
soon! 

By the by, one question for readers--is Sanzo more appropriately called a monk or a priest? I've seen both used, and am unsure what the closer Western approximation is. 


	2. Part the Second

Hakkai raised his hand to his eyes, but even when he shielded them from the tearing wind he could see next to nothing. He thought he could hear Hakuryuu's squeaking, but then again it might have only been the wind whistling through the high reaches. It occurred to him that perhaps he should have had Hakuryuu shift--the jeep couldn't handle the steep slopes or this much snow, but his headlights would be a beacon, and they could have made some shelter by drawing a tarp over the frame. And Hakuryuu didn't get nearly as cold when he was a vehicle. 

Too late now, at least until he found them. "Goku!" he called against the wind. "Hakuryuu!" 

"Over here!" And that he did not imagine. The relief warmed him like fire, and he slogged forward--the snow was well past his knees--until he reached a blur of brown and orange, camouflaged by a coat of snow. 

"Goku," he admonished, crouching so he was speaking into his friend's ear, "don't run off again!" 

"But I saw it," Goku said. "I think. Here." 

He pushed into his hands what Hakkai first thought was a heap of snow, then realized was actually a bundle of white dragon. Hakuryuu chirped piteously as Hakkai clucked his tongue and stowed him away under his jacket and shirt. The dragon was icy, nestling against his stomach, and he winced. Hakuryuu would not be transforming anytime soon, at least until he had warmed up. 

"Serves you right," Hakkai murmured, not meaning it, but the dragon usually was more cautious. He looked to his other companion, of whom that could never be expected. "Goku, where did you see the cave?" 

Goku frowned. "Don't know. I swear it was right here." 

"The snow's disorienting. We might be close. But we have to wait here for Sanzo and Gojyo, they're right behind me--Goku!" 

Goku was pushing ahead into the drifts, heedless of Hakkai's warning. "It's gotta be around here," he shouted back over his shoulder. "I saw it!" The mountainside was steeper here, and Goku struggled to climb higher. He pulled himself up the face of a boulder so sheer it had barely collected any snow, used the added height to peer around. Hakkai wondered if perhaps he could see better--long practice, those centuries in the mountain, when the blizzards hid him from all the world... 

Then he realized that he could still see Goku above him--the snow must be letting up, or they were in the eye of the storm; the flakes were smaller and fewer and he could make out the dim shape of trees around them. Hakkai looked behind him, but glimpsed no sign of brilliant red hair. But they could be just out of sight. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he shouted, "Sanzo! Gojyo!" 

"Sanzooo!" Goku added to his call, "We're her--uwa~AHH!" 

The wind, which had died a little, returned with a vengeance, so strong that Hakkai stumbled, and Goku, right in its path, tripped, and fell forwards. 

Off the rock, his arms windmilling. Hakkai lunged to catch him, and then Goku slammed into his chest and knocked them both down. The snowdrifts were soft, but not enough to stop their momentum on so steep a climb. Tangled together, they rolled down the incline, literally head over heels. Hakuryuu wailed, and it flashed through Hakkai's thoughts that this was a much faster form of locomotion, if only it weren't in the wrong direction. Hopefully they wouldn't bowl over Sanzo and Gojyo, who would not appreciate losing this much distance-- 

They stopped with a thud, in a snowbank concealing an outcropping of stone. Hakkai struggled to sit up, brushing away the snow gathered on his face. His cheeks were too numb to feel the freeze. Against his belly Hakuryuu gave a soft "kyuu", but it was reassuring, not a cry of pain. 

Goku was laying across his legs, preventing him from standing. Reaching out, gingerly until he verified he felt no injury beyond the expected bruising, he nudged the other youkai's shoulder. "Are you all right?" 

Goku said nothing. Hakkai shook him, gently, and the boy's tousled brown head lolled back, so that Hakkai saw the blood on his temple, stark red against the white snow. 

* * * 

Sanzo muttered something, but Gojyo could barely hear his voice, much less the words. "What?" he shouted. 

The monk looked back at him. "We should've reached them by now!" 

And yet there was no sign of youkai or dragon. "Maybe we passed them?" 

Sanzo stopped, as did Gojyo, an instant before they collided. The monk had stuck a purple wool hat over his blond hair; now, with his robes layered with ice crystals, it was the only color on him. His usually pale skin was now easily as white as the snow; it occurred to Gojyo that this might not be a good thing, however prettily it brought out his eyes. Humans were more sensitive to climate than youkai, generally. But it was Sanzo who was leading the way, obstinately pushing through the snow to...where? Where the hell were they going, anyway? 

"This is your fault," Gojyo said, angrily, and pleased that he spat it out before his teeth could chatter. "If we'd gone around--" 

"Would you prefer we turned back now?" Sanzo shot back. His arms were crossed tightly over his chest, and he was hunched against the wind. 

"You got a better idea?" 

"Fine, then, let's go!" 

"What about Hakkai and Goku?" 

"We'll leave them a note! I'm sure they'll find it easily!" 

Neither moved. The gale howled, lashing them with ice. Sanzo shifted, pushing his arms deeper into his sleeves. "Come on," he said, just loudly enough to be heard. "They're probably right ahead." 

"If they're not?" 

Sanzo smiled; at least, Gojyo thought that was why his lips contorted. "My fault, isn't it? So, not your problem." 

"To hell it's not--" But Sanzo had turned, was plowing forward up the slope. "Goddamn monk," Gojyo snarled, and the heat of anger gave him the strength to follow. 

But that furnace went cold, too quickly. He was stumbling in the snow, and only belatedly realized the pace had become easier. "Oi, Sanzo!" 

"What?" 

"Are we going the right way?" 

"The hell should I know?" He didn't even sound angry, and Gojyo squinted at him through the whirling flakes. Was he even paler? 

"We're not going uphill anymore." 

Sanzo looked down, as if he could even see his sandals, buried as they were in two feet of snow. But the ground here was level. "We're not." 

"Are we at the pass?" 

"...doubt it." 

"Must be a ledge or something." He took a step forward. 

And found his boot sliding out from under him, sending him to the ground with a crash that sounded even through the snow. 

"Gojyo!" A flurry of robes and ice, and Sanzo loomed over him. 

"Ch'. Snow broke my fall." Gojyo struggled up, only to have his feet slip again. This time he wobbled, but caught himself before he tripped. 

"Stupid kappa. Don't tell me you're drunk!" 

"You're the only one who brought beer!" Gojyo snapped back. "This rock is fuckin' slippery!" He pounded it with his boot. 

There was a booming sound, a weird echo of his thump, and then the crack of a gunshot. Gojyo stared, but Sanzo's hands were empty, no revolver in sight. 

"Who's shooting?" 

Sanzo's eyes widened. "Shit," he said. "Gojyo, this isn't rock--" 

Another crack sounded, a great hollow boom, too big to be a gun, too high to be a cannon, and then, without further warning, the ice under his feet fractured. Gojyo had a split second to register that Sanzo's face had lost its final hint of color, and then he was plunging down into water as cold as the snow and much, much darker. 

* * *

to be continued... 

By popular vote Sanzo will be called a monk for the rest of this story. Still on the fence about which I like better. Thanks for the reviews, they're the ink that keeps a writer's pen flowing, or the juice that powers her computer...anyway, they keep me muse going, and this story will be going on, too--soon! 


	3. Part the Third

Hakkai knew what he had to do, but it wasn't easy to find his center, not with the scream of the wind, the snow whipping his face. Not with Goku unconscious in his lap, and his forehead was still bleeding, though sluggishly, the blood freezing. The indent they had made in the snowbank provided some scant shelter from the gale, but not nearly enough. 

Concentrate. Hakkai closed his eyes, focused himself. The cold was external; inside his chest his heart pumped warm blood, his nose and throat warmed the air for his lungs, brought in the oxygen and expelled the poisons. He was a being of energies, of illumination, of spirit, and he could use that spirit as his will decided. All one need do is think, and by the thought, it is so. 

Green light blossomed between his fingers, melting the snowflakes into tiny drops which fell to Goku's brow, mixed with the blood and streaked down his cheeks like tears. He shuddered, and Hakkai felt his life force, pulsing strong as ever--a surface cut, only a light concussion, easily healed. Head wounds always looked worse than they were. Goku's eyes opened, their clear gold bright, not clouded, as they met Hakkai's. "What happened?" 

Hakkai leaned back, a little dizzy with relief and the effort of the healing. "Thank goodness." 

"Ne, Hakkai, what..." Goku realized he was lying on top of his friend, hastily scrambled up and offered a hand to Hakkai, who gratefully accepted. "How'd we get here?" He frowned. "Ah, damn...I fell, didn't I." 

"It wasn't your fault, Goku. The wind--" 

"Attacked. Like a tiger or something." Goku rubbed his head. "But you fixed me. Thank you." 

"You're welcome. Now--" 

"Sanzo and Gojyo." Undeterred by the blood in his eyes or snow drifts higher than his waist, he set off up the mountain. "C'mon, Hakkai! We gotta find 'em!" 

Even in the middle of a blizzard, even so lost they could hardly distinguish sky from ground. This was Goku. Hakkai smiled, and followed his comrade. 

* * * 

It happened so fast Sanzo didn't have time to react. One instant Gojyo was standing there, and the next he had dropped into gray water without so much as a yell. Sanzo charged forward, too slow, clutching empty space. The ripples smoothed out, damning his helplessness, and then Gojyo's vivid scarlet head broke the surface in an explosion of waves. Ice went flying as he scrabbled desperately for purchase, the rim crumbling into the water as he clawed at it. 

Sanzo felt the ice under his own feet rock and crackle alarmingly. No time. He dropped to his knees, stretched out over the ice to distribute his weight and extended his hands, but Gojyo didn't notice, even when Sanzo shouted his name. The damn kappa was thrashing frantically, too terrified of the icy water to think. He opened his mouth to cry out, and the water rushed in, and there was no way in heaven or hell that Sanzo was going to watch this idiot drown right before his eyes. 

Ignoring the creaking of the ice, he scooted forward, grabbed for Gojyo. One flailing arm caught him across the jaw, knocked his head back with a burst of stars. Then he had his hands locked around the half-youkai's wrists, slippery and cold as eels. 

Bracing his heels against the shattering ice, Sanzo lunged backwards, yanking Gojyo up into his arms. He staggered back until his legs abruptly gave out, and for a moment he thought that this was it, the ice would crack under him and they would both be pulled under... 

He fell onto an incline on the river's shore, the snow compressing into a frozen seat under him. Draped over him, Gojyo coughed up the last of the water. He was trembling so hard he was shaking Sanzo as well, and his red hair fell into the monk's eyes, damp and freezing. 

Shaking off the icy strands, Sanzo rocked back his head, looked up into the maelstrom of white engulfing them. Wondered how something so chaotic could at the same time be so soothing. Not threatening like the water, and the howl of the wind was almost a song. Gojyo stopped coughing, and his shivers now were less severe, slowing to arrhythmic, spasmodic tremors. 

That...that was bad. "Get up, you damn kappa!" Sanzo shouted. He wasn't sure if he even heard himself above the wind, and Gojyo didn't respond. His eyes were closed--damn it, even the red lashes were rimmed with ice. Sanzo shoved himself up, every muscle in his body protesting, pushed Gojyo off him and levered himself upright. Then tried to drag up Gojyo as well, but it wasn't happening. That lanky height was all corded muscle; the half-youkai outweighed him by more than a few pounds. On a good day it wouldn't be a problem...this was not a good day. He needed Goku's strength, Hakkai's healing. 

And who was he to rely on anyone? "Dammit!" Sanzo drew back his leg, kicked Gojyo in the shins. Hard. 

Scarlet eyes cracked open. "Gimme...couple minutes," the kappa slurred. 

"Get up. _Now_," Sanzo ordered. He was hoarse from shouting over the storm, and the icy air burned his lungs. 

Gojyo rolled onto his side, into the snowbank, as if he were snuggling into a bed. "Jus'...lemme sleep..." 

_This is your fault_. Sanzo stood there, swaying a little in the wind, and considered that this journey had never been his choice to begin with, and thus every decision he made upon it was ultimately irrelevant. That Gojyo was making a choice of his own here. That freezing to death was really quite a peaceful way to go. 

Fuck that. Bending, he grabbed Gojyo's collar, hauled him up to his knees and smacked him smartly across the cheeks, twice. The half-youkai's eyes snapped open, completely this time, and Sanzo pulled his gun, put the muzzle to his temple and yelled in his ear, "_**You will walk!**_" 

Gojyo stared. Sanzo had the distinct impression he didn't even remember the blizzard still raging around them. Then he nodded, clambered unsteadily to his feet as he stuttered, "W-where?" 

_How the hell should I know?_ Impossible to think in this mess. And Gojyo's eyes were sliding closed again--he was gray, under the tan, and his lips were as blue as if he had painted them. 

'Just a cave above the waterfall,' the innkeeper had said. And they were above the water. It was a thin straw but Sanzo didn't have much choice about grasping it. "Up," he said. "Come on." 

And Gojyo walked. Not fast, blindly staggering through the snow, and with every step he leaned more heavily on Sanzo, but he moved. 

There were voices in the wind, promises of torture and death, but Sanzo was more concerned with the ones in his head. Every time his left foot fell and Gojyo stumbled against him, he heard whispers of how much faster he could go by himself, of how he was losing his only chance for survival. And every step with his right foot shot pain through his ankle that not even the cold numbed; he had twisted it on the ice somewhere, and the whispers told him how little it would hurt to lie in the snow, to be covered in a white blanket that would soothe away all pain and noise and bring the ultimate peace... 

"Shut up," Sanzo growled through gritted teeth, to all the voices, "just shut the fuck up." And he kept walking with Gojyo. 

He had just begun to debate with himself whether the flashes of color before his eyes were hallucinations or uniquely dyed snowflakes when he realized the snow had let up a little, revealing dim, dark shapes beyond the whiteness. Something strange about those trees, barely visible under the snow, wrong about how they were lying horizontal, one on top the other, and where were the branches... 

Sanzo ran the last few feet, yanking Gojyo along with him, knocked up against the wood--the door, the door in the wilderness. He pawed away the snow, felt along the rough bark until his hands found the thick rope binding the logs. Farther along there was another rope, caked with ice, swinging free. He wrapped his hands around it--they were too cold to feel the twisted cording, but he clumsily looped it over his wrists and pulled, throwing his whole weight against it. Slowly, creaking over the wind, the door slid aside. It only moved a couple feet before the snow stopped it, but there was a crack of darkness in the white. 

Gojyo had fallen, a broken doll, half-propped up by the shelter door. Sanzo took hold of his jacket and dragged him through the snow, ungently manhandled his limp body through the opening and fell inside after him. The cave was impossibly dark after the blinding white outside. Barely a man's height, rough loose stone covering the floor, but the thick rock muffled the wind. Pushing the door shut cut off the only strip of light, save a pale glimmer through the gaps between the logs. In the darkness, Sanzo shoved Gojyo further inside, then felt along the floor. There was a stack of wood in one corner, and a thick dusting of ash within a circle of stones. 

Piling some of the wood and the dry, thin branches inside the circle, Sanzo dug through his robes until he found his lighter. He dripped a little of the butane onto the kindling, then tried to snap the flame to light, but his fingers were shaking too hard. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he blew on them, but could not feel the warmth of his breath, if it were still warm at all. 

The dark quiet was so pronounced that his ears were ringing. He realized he could not hear Gojyo breathing. But maybe he was still deafened by the wind. 

As he tried the lighter again, his lips moved, though Sanzo was barely aware of it. "Please." It was a prayer. Not to the Buddha, nor any god; not even to local spirits of wood or fire. A prayer, simply, to his own blood, that it would keep him moving; to his own hands, that they might stop shaking long enough for him to manage this; to Gojyo's heart, that it would continue to beat, just a little longer. "Please..." 

* * *

to be continued... 

Aa~ah, poor things. Don't worry, Sanzo-chan, I'll keep you warm! Just come over to this hottub here... 

Big thanks to all the lovely people who left reviews. Glad you're finding it in character, real-circus, I hope I can keep that up! And nope, no yaoi here, UltraM2000 and ayie@Hairi - I'm afraid the boys won't have time for it anyway. *evil author grin* Unless you _want_ to see it, of course... (You'll know what I mean...soon!) 


	4. Part the Fourth

The cold didn't bother Goku. Five centuries imprisoned in a cave had accustomed him to just about any variation of temperature. He had hated snow for all that time, but now he could enjoy it, appreciate the beauty of a frosted fir, or the fun of a well-thrown snowball. 

This, though, was neither fun nor beautiful. His ears ached from the ceaseless wind, and he could see nothing but white on white on white--and Hakkai, when he looked back, steadily plodding behind him. The snow was past his waist, gathering in his cloak and on his pack, weighing him down. And there was no sign of Sanzo or Gojyo. The wind blew too hard for him to scent out anything--blind, deaf, and dumb, they were searching. With the key word being 'dumb', he was sure Sanzo would tell him. _Bakazaru_, he'd say, do you really think luck is on your side? 

Of course not. But they hardly had a choice about it, did they? Sanzo was human, Gojyo half-human. They wouldn't survive being buried under this blizzard. Even Hakkai was starting to struggle; Goku could feel him raising his energies to keep himself warm. A barrier against the storm, which made sense, because it was an attack of a sort. If only there were a way to really fight it. 

Even as he thought it, the gale picked up again, great gusts driving snow into his face, as if it were trying to beat him back. There was malice in its force, in how it threw ice into his eyes. A challenge. Goku threw back his head, raised his fists and howled his answer into the wind. 

"Goku?" 

Hakkai touched his shoulder, peered down at him anxiously. Goku shook his head, mumbled, "It's nothing. Sorry." 

There was strain in Hakkai's smile. "I know how you feel." 

The wind lashed them again. "Do you feel that?" 

"Feel what?" 

Goku frowned. "It doesn't like us. No...it wants..." He could almost hear it. Voices in the storm, cruelty without conscience. "It wants us dead." 

"Nature is a harsh mistress," Hakkai quoted, lightly. 

"This isn't nature." He knew well the viciousness of the natural world. This was a less indifferent malevolence. "I think--" He took a step forward, and tripped over an unexpected unevenness under the snow. Regaining his balance, he frowned down at the ground. Something wrong about its texture under his boots; it was too smooth, and lacking solidity, the definite weight of stone. He retreated a step, feeling the slight give. "Hakkai...we should go back." 

"What do you mean?" 

"We're walking on water." At Hakkai's blank expression he explained, "A river or a pond or something. Look." He pointed mere feet ahead. Barely visible through the snow was a patch of gray, a churned-up mass of ice and a mouth of open water, swallowing the falling flakes. Something must have broken through it, not too long ago, if it wasn't frozen over yet. Maybe the storm had dislodged a boulder higher up the mountain. 

"The innkeeper did mention a waterfall," Hakkai remarked. "If it's close," and Goku thought he might hear a faint roar, under the wind, "then the moving water might not fully freeze." 

"So we should go back." 

"Yes, that's probably--" Hakkai stopped, so abruptly Goku blinked up at him in concern. The youkai bent down, picked up something Goku's forging footsteps had uncovered and shook the snow off it, a limp, dark green shape. 

Goku squinted at it. "Isn't that your hat?" 

Hakkai nodded mechanically, clutching it to his chest as if it were an injured pet. 

"How'd you lose your hat here?" 

"I..." Hakkai's head came up, and Goku watched him pull his lips into a smile, not his usual comforting smile, but the false one, the one which hid things. He hated that smile on Hakkai. It made him want to punch whatever was causing it. "I don't know how it got here, Goku," Hakkai said, as if he thought Goku wouldn't notice he was lying. "Let's get off this ice." 

It wasn't a wide river; they were back on solid earth within fifteen feet. Hakkai immediately set off, backtracking as if he knew where he was heading. Goku followed him, shouting, "Where are we going?" 

"We passed trees here earlier," Hakkai said, which wasn't entirely accurate. 'Ran headfirst into a pine and knocked most of the snow off its needles' was closer to the mark, in Goku's case. But they found the stand again without too much trouble. The circle of trees provided a little shelter from the snow, enough that one could see from one trunk to another. Hakkai paced the distance between and nodded. "This will do." 

"What will do?" 

"It's getting dark," Hakkai said, and Goku realized he was right. Night was falling; the sun had probably already gone down. "And the blizzard's still going strong. I think it'd be best to take a break, see if it dies down any. Hakuryuu?" He withdrew the little dragon from his tunic. "Are you warmed up enough to change for us?" 

Hakuryuu kyuu'ed obligingly, slipped down from his arms and took position under the largest tree, then transformed. Snow was plowed aside as dragon swelled into jeep. "Thank you," Hakkai said, patting the hood, and Hakuryuu's headlights flashed. 

"What are you doing?" Goku demanded. 

Climbing into the back, Hakkai shrugged off his pack and began pulling his tent from it. "We can make some shelter with the tarp--" 

"We can't hide here all night! What about Sanzo and Gojyo?" 

Hakkai went still, as if the cold had frozen him all at once. The smile slipped, was restored with an effort of will Goku recognized from their most difficult battles. "Perhaps they reached the hunter's shelter." 

"What if they didn't? We need to find them--" 

"Which we can't do in this storm." 

"We have to try!" 

"Goku." Hakkai took his shoulders, looked him in the eyes. Goku met them squarely, looking for whatever it was he was hiding, but saw only concern in the green. "Sanzo...Sanzo would kill me if I let you get lost in the snow. We have to trust him and Gojyo to take care of themselves. Until we have a chance of finding them. All right?" 

"But..." Hakkai was right. Sanzo probably would be furious with him--Sanzo hated to be rescued even when he needed to be; he got even angrier when Goku worried without reason. And Gojyo would tease him about it--"Aww, the bakazaru cares!" He could imagine the ero-kappa's leer. They were strong, so much stronger than the malice in this storm. They wouldn't need help. 

Besides, if Sanzo were truly in trouble, he'd know. He always knew. "All right," Goku sighed, and helped Hakkai raise a canopy over the jeep. 

*** 

There was pain, but it was a distant thing, a candle across the room. He could have reached for it, but he preferred the darkness, the safety of emptiness, where there was nothing to hurt him, nothing to frighten him. But from somewhere far away he heard a voice. He didn't want to listen, didn't want to make that admission, that he existed at all. There was something insistent in the voice, however. Persuasive. Irresistible. He remembered it, remembered the peace it brought...sunrise, and that voice shone like dawn. 

He listened now, and heard, not a prayer, but his own name. His name, and a long string of words, of which he knew perhaps three-quarters. The voice was methodically working through every curse in existence which could be set upon his head, most mundane but biting, a few horrifically exotic and detailed. And safety was important, but he was never one to take an insult lying down. 

Gojyo returned to consciousness unwillingly, and it was as excruciating as being born. Every nerve in his body seemed to have something to say, none of it good. He was trembling like a virgin about to be bedded and couldn't stop, couldn't even figure out where to begin. And this despite being under several layers--of snow? No, not that soft, and heavier. Blankets, and he should be sweating like a pig, covered up and so near to the fire. It glowed, close enough he could see the embers of logs sparking and collapsing in on themselves. 

So close he could feel the pressure of its heat, pulsing, dry waves, but he still was freezing. In the orange firelight he could see the ground was stone, but his head was on something soft, and warm, a warmth he could feel, unlike the fire. With a little groan he nestled against it. 

It moved. It spoke to him, in a tone drier than the fire. "So you're going to live after all?" 

Coming awake all at once, Gojyo saw violet eyes studying him, and shoved himself away, as far as he could without rolling into the flames. Everything was blurry, mirages in a makeshift desert, but he could see the cave's rough walls, the heavy log door, and Sanzo. He could see Sanzo all too clearly, stretched out beside him under the blankets, bare-chested and looking, as he usually did, in need of a cigarette. 

"What the hell are you--I only sleep with girls! Only girls and--uh, get outa my bed!" 

Sanzo's face screwed up, suffused with color, and Gojyo ducked his head, expecting a fan to fall on it. Instead Sanzo made a strange sound, odd in how it was familiar, and yet so bizarre it took him a moment to recognize...laughter. Sanzo was laughing. 

Apparently Gojyo wasn't the only one who had frozen more braincells than was good for him. 

"_Baaka_," the monk drawled, when he had recovered from his fit. "If I were going to break that vow you wouldn't be my first choice." 

"Then...then..." 

Sanzo rose abruptly, all smooth feline grace as he slid out from under the blanket and stalked to his robes spread over the cave floor. He was at least wearing his jeans-- 

Gojyo peeked under the covers, and saw..."Wha--I'm not wearing anything. Why am I not wearing anything?" 

"Your clothes were wet." 

"I'm not wearing anything at all!" 

Sanzo sighed as he pulled on his leather. "Everything was soaked. It's drying," and he gestured to the clothes draped over the rocks around the fire. "And you're dry and warm, which was the important thing." 

Warm? This wasn't warm, at least not as far as Gojyo remembered it. Which wasn't much. His teeth clattered like Goku running up stairs. 

"Warmer, anyway." Sanzo was in front of him suddenly, golden in the firelight and moving like the flames, wavering and too fast to follow. "Here. Drink." 

The cup was so hot it burned his skin, and yet he was still shivering, enough that Sanzo had to wrap his own hands around Gojyo's to guide it to his mouth. The tea was bitter, strong, and he coughed on it, but the shivers were less when he finished, and the roaring in his head had died down to distant thunder. 

"You're such a terrible monk," he said, as he lay back down again. 

"Am I really." 

Gojyo turned his head against the stone pillow--carefully, yet it still spun. Sanzo was sitting cross-legged, within reach if he stretched out his arm. But too far away to feel his warmth; he was only light and shadow, a hazy ephemeral pattern against the solid rock. "Terrible," he said again. 

"You only just noticed." Strange, too, for Sanzo to sound that calm; usually he was so easy to bait. Cool fire. "Was sharing a bed the final straw?" 

"Not that." It seemed to Gojyo that his words were stretching, like melting taffy, or maybe it was just his voice running away. Smart voice, but it didn't escape fast enough to stop him. "Seriously. The only thing you say you follow...that thing, that you'd kill the Buddha you met, that you'd kill anyone who gets in your way...shouldn't you be letting me save myself?" 

"Perhaps." 

"Terrible...you wanna know something, though?" Gojyo mumbled. "I don't think I could save myself right now..." 

"Stupid kappa," he thought he heard Sanzo say, but by then all words were fleeing, and if there were more he couldn't reach them. He was falling again, but this time the water was warm and shining gold. There was someone, too, who caught and held him, and he knew that he was saved. 

* * *

to be continued... 

Ahh, didn't make it to a cliffhanger. Come back anyway? There'll be one next time! 

Thank you, everyone, for the reviews! It's so great to know folks are having as much fun with this as I am. For those who have opinions on the matter ^^ - that last scene is about as close to shounen ai as this is going to get. Though you're not the only one with her mind in the gutter, sf - my inner hentai had all *kinds* of plans, which I cruelly squashed. And NekoMegami-chan, the chapters will be getting a bit longer, but it shouldn't slow the posting down - hope you and everyone else continue to enjoy 'em! 


	5. Part the Fifth

Sanzo didn't know if he should be concerned about Gojyo's fading in and out of consciousness, or satisfied that he was waking up at all. At first he hadn't been sure he would get that much. After he had gotten the fire going, stripped Gojyo of his freezing clothes and piled all the blankets and tarps in their packs over him, the damn kappa had still just lain there, fish-cold to the touch but not shivering, obstinately refusing to open his eyes no matter how forcefully he was ordered to. 

Even when Sanzo burrowed under the covers with him, drew him close to share their body heat, hissing at the icy skin pressed again his, Gojyo didn't twitch. His breathing was so shallow that Sanzo half-expected it to stop after every wheeze, found himself holding his own breath and not exhaling until his companion had, as if he could keep his lungs working by sympathetic magic. 

At last he had started to shiver, like a warm-blooded creature should, had finally opened his eyes and made it clear that the bundle of hormones and impulses he called a brain was still intact, if not functioning at even its limited capacity. And Sanzo had wanted to smack him for taking so long about it, but it wasn't really Gojyo's fault, directly, anyway. His rambling equally could not be held against him, so Sanzo ignored it, or tried to. 

Since then, the half-youkai had slipped between dreams and waking with no clear difference between states, mumbling nonsense in both. Then he had gone silent, and Sanzo was considering shaking him awake, when like that, Gojyo opened his eyes, sat up, and said, "Where's Hakkai? Where's Goku?" 

His red eyes were clear, not glazed, and his voice was weak but steady. "Where are they?" he asked again, looking around the cave as if they might be hiding behind a pebble. 

"Outside, somewhere," Sanzo told him. "They haven't made it here." 

"And you haven't done anything to find them?" 

"What did you expect me to do?" Sanzo withdrew a cigarette from an almost empty pack, but not his lighter. The hunter's shelter had a vent in the stone above the firepit, a primitive sort of chimney which drew most of the smoke away, but he doubted adding tobacco to their air would be best for Gojyo's health. Especially since the half-youkai was probably craving a smoke anyway. Sanzo didn't need Hakkai around to tell him that wasn't a great idea. "They're better off in this weather than either of us, anyway." 

"Something might've happened to them--" Gojyo made to stand, only to collapse back on the blankets. He glowered at Sanzo from where he lay. "You could've at least tried to look for them." 

Sanzo forbore to point out the obvious, that their comrades were strong enough to take care of themselves, that he would have likely only lost himself in the blizzard, that he had been otherwise occupied. Instead he cocked his ear to the wind outside. "The storm's lessening." 

Gojyo listened, shuddered. "Doesn't sound it." 

"You didn't hear it before." 

"It's like..." Gojyo closed his eyes, the better to listen to the shrieking beyond their stone refuge. "Sound like there's something out there, trying to break in. I've never heard a storm..." His eyes opened again, and Sanzo saw sudden comprehension light in his face. "It's not just a storm, is it? There is something out there. A youkai?" 

"Almost definitely." 

"A youkai's trap, and we walked right into it. Didn't have a clue..." He stopped, narrowed scarlet eyes at Sanzo. 

"The innkeeper's accent." At Gojyo's suspicious stare, Sanzo sighed, rolling the cigarette between his fingers. "He was from the north. He would've known the difference between flurries and a blizzard. Usually it only snows every other winter here, if that. The cause had to be unnatural." 

"You knew," Gojyo accused. "You knew this was a youkai, and you made us take the pass anyway." 

Sanzo declined to answer. 

Gojyo shoved himself up on trembling arms to glare at him. "How many times do we have to tell you, we're not heroes? After we're done, we let the bards make us the stars. In the stories we'll rescue all the ladies and slay all the monsters. But right now we got only one mission, and that's to survive this damn journey." 

Screw it. Sanzo lit the cigarette, grimacing at how his lighter sputtered--almost out of fuel--and took a long drag. The burning tip was a miniature of the hellfire in Gojyo's eyes. And the bastard kappa was still ranting, "But no, that's not enough for the great and magnificent Genjo Sanzo. You're such a fucking liar." 

At that Sanzo's eyebrows went up. "A liar?" 

"You say you don't want to save anybody. It's true, isn't it. It's true, you don't want to save anybody--you want to save _everybody_. You'd save the whole damn world, if it means you won't have to think about saving yourself." 

"Shut up." 

"And we don't count, do we? Me, Hakkai, Goku--we're part of you, aren't we, Sanzo-sama? We're so fucking close that saving us is like saving yourself, and that's the one thing you can't do. We'd follow you off a cliff, damn all of us, we'd follow you into hell, and you'd let us, because otherwise it means something. You can't treat us special, because that'd mean we're worth something, we're important somehow. And if we're important, then you can't ignore that we see something in you. Whatever the hell it is. If our beliefs matter, then our belief in you must matter, and you couldn't have that." 

"Go back to sleep, idiot," Sanzo said, wearily. "You're not making any sense." 

"But you didn't let me drown." Gojyo was sliding back down the wall, his eyes closing against his will. There was still force in his voice, but the words were running together, dropping to a mumble. "Fucking terrible monk. You couldn't let me die. Or is that just because I'm nobody? I'm everybody, I'm everyone who needs saving, who doesn't matter except that you can save them, and it doesn't mean anything...if I'd been Goku you'd have had to let me die..." 

"Damn kappa." Gojyo didn't reply, didn't move except for the rise and fall of his chest. Sanzo flicked ash from his cigarette, put his other hand to the half-youkai's forehead. His skin was, finally, warm to the touch. Too warm? Could hypothermia launch directly into a fever? He had no idea. Hakkai would know, but Hakkai wasn't here, was he? Which had really been the point of that ranting. Gojyo worried, all the time, more than Hakkai, even, and thought he hid it. He could be such a kid sometimes, worse than Goku. 

_I'm everyone...who doesn't matter except that you can save them, and it doesn't mean anything..._ "You really are stupid," Sanzo said aloud, and wasn't sure who he was talking to. When the cigarette had burned down to his fingers he tossed it into the far corner of the cave, took out another and lit it. 

By the time he had emptied the pack, the wind outside had died completely, so that the only sounds were the crackling of the fire and Gojyo's snoring. Sanzo finished the last cigarette, stood and tested his twisted ankle. It hurt, but not so much that he couldn't ignore it. He crossed the cave, added a couple logs to the fire. Gojyo didn't stir when Sanzo felt his forehead again. It didn't seem any hotter, and his repose seemed more like honest sleep than his earlier immobility. 

Wrapping his robes tightly around himself, Sanzo put his shoulder to the logs and slid aside the door. A cold draft cut his cheeks, but the only flakes were blown off the rocks around him. Otherwise the air was clear, the moonlit clouds in the sky casting a faint blue glow over the mountain's white slope. The drifts were piled two, three, four feet deep, and no trace remained of their passage to here only hours before. The snow had completely covered the logs, so the door looked like just another side of the mountain. Sanzo brushed enough away to reveal the dark bark, obvious against the white, unless more fell. 

Gusts still shrieked through the mountain peaks high above, echoes muffled by the snow. There was laughter carried in that wind, faint and high and spiteful. He wondered if Goku and Hakkai could hear it from wherever they were. Wondered if they would guess what it meant, and know that the storm's end meant nothing. It would be hours yet until dawn. 

Making sure his gun was in his sleeve and the sutras were secure around his neck, Sanzo drew a breath of bracing, biting air, and stepped into the night. 

* * * 

Sheltered only by an oiled tarp, Hakkai listened to the wind moan. Its howls were fading, and the coming quiet was like a grave. Curled up against his friend, Goku snored softly, drooling a little on Hakkai's sash. He slept so easily. Hakkai could barely remember a time when he had been able to drop off with such trusting abandon. Three years, at least. Another life ago. 

He still was cold, but it had nothing to do with the temperature. The couple blankets and his own youkai nature protected him from the worst of it, and he had found he could be entirely comfortable by adjusting his aura to counter the climate. It was a simple trick, more effortless than fighting or healing, though those also came easier with practice. It had occurred to him before that both Gojyo and Sanzo could be taught the basics of his style; after all, every living thing had potential energy to channel. Goku had little need for or interest in learning tricks, but the human and the half-youkai could benefit from an unexpected trump card. Gojyo in particular, whose aura he knew well enough to suspect he might have talents Hakkai couldn't even imagine...he had always meant to bring it up, but somehow never had... 

And would he ever have the chance, now? He fingered the scratchy wool of the hat in his hands. His hat, that he had thrust onto Gojyo's stubborn head only hours before. It might have only been a coincidence, that he had found it scant feet from that broken ice, a hole large enough to drop two men into the water. The river's current would have dragged them under the ice in seconds. 

It might be coincidence, but Hakkai knew fate too well to hope for that. Even if they hadn't fallen prey to the river, if they had never found shelter, exposure could have killed them just as surely. The best he could do was to assume nothing at all, just to carry on the search. But he had to brace himself, for when he did find the truth. If they were truly lost... 

Sanzo, who trusted him, who swore a faith in him that Hakkai had no choice but to live up to, and thus he lived. And Gojyo...there were no words for that. He was there, and that was everything. That Gojyo had taken him in, those few years past, that Gojyo stayed by his side, all of it was only a hint of something Hakkai didn't understand, but believed in as surely as he had felt anything in any life. 

If they were gone, he didn't know what he would do, and that frightened him as deeply as the possibility of their loss. He had to prepare himself for it, and still, that might not be enough. It wasn't a case of control, or losing control; what he was could not be contained the way Goku was checked by his diadem. Everything Hakkai did, he chose to do, but what he chose when angry, or stricken by grief... 

And there was Goku, of course. Hakkai's arms tightened around the smaller youkai. He should have told him his suspicions, as soon as he found the hat; he knew Goku hadn't been fooled by his non-answers. Goku was strong in nearly every way, mature enough now to hold onto himself. Hakkai did him no favors, hiding what he knew, but he couldn't bring himself to say his fears aloud. And he needed Goku's absolute confidence, selfishly depended on his younger friend's spirit as much as he relied on Sanzo's trust and Gojyo's presence. 

"Kyuu," came faintly from the jeep's hood, and Hakkai smiled a little, genuinely. And Hakuryuu, of course, always Hakuryuu's loyalty. "I'm all right," he told the dragon, patting the dashboard. "How are you doing?" The emergency lights were flashing, in case Gojyo and Sanzo might be able to see them through the storm. It was a drain of power but Goku had insisted, and Hakuryuu hadn't complained, though Hakkai knew the dragon was as exhausted as they. "Can you make it a little longer?" 

He had only whispered, and Goku usually slept like a rock, but now the golden eyes snapped open. "Hakkai," he said, sitting up. "Are they..." But he found the answer just by looking, paused instead for a moment. Then he wrenched the tarp off the jeep's frame, scattering snow and opening them to a cold, clear night. "The storm," he said, "it's stopped." 

"For now, apparently," Hakkai agreed, glancing up through the branches at the clouds overhead. 

Instantly Goku was up and out of the jeep. "We have to look for them now. Before it starts again." 

"Goku..." He hadn't forgotten what the boy had said before, about the evil in the storm's violence. When he tried he could sense it too, and knew as well as Goku what that meant. A magical attack, either a youkai, or another of their enemies. The storm's end might mean capitulation, or it could be prelude to another assault. Until they knew, hiding might be their safest option. "Perhaps we should wait here--" 

"Hakkai, what's wrong with you?" Goku demanded, hands on his hips. "You don't just give up! Wherever they are, we have to get to them, before something worse happens." 

He had no choice. "Goku," Hakkai said, "I don't know if we can find them." He held up the hat. "I gave this to Gojyo, he'd lost his own. We found it right where the ice was broken. I think there's a good chance--" 

"No," said Goku. 

"I don't know for sure, and don't want to believe it, but it's very possible that they drowned," Hakkai said relentlessly. "Even if they didn't, the blizzard--" 

"No," Goku said again. "Sanzo's alive." 

"I want him to be as much as you, but--" 

"Hakkai," Goku said, as patiently as if he were five hundred years older in mind as well as time. "I'd know if something happened to Sanzo." 

_Spine-tingling...but when she was in danger, I felt nothing, knew nothing, only continued playing with my students..._ Hakkai spoke through numb lips, "You might think--" 

"I _do_." 

"You don't even know where he is." 

"No." Goku shook his head. "I don't know where he is, or what's going on with him, but if he were in real trouble, or if he'd died...I'd know." He waved up at the clouds above. "It's night now, but you know when the sun's in the sky, don't you? Even when there's clouds covering it up. Sanzo's all right. And Gojyo is, too, because Sanzo wouldn't let anything happen to him. But we've got to find them now, before something really does." 

"Goku..." 

"So let's _go_!" 

Hakkai smiled, and could tell Goku knew it was real, from the grin that spread over the boy's own face. "All right," the older youkai said, and folding the tarp and blankets to stow them away in their packs, he called for Hakuryuu. The jeep shrank into the dragon, which glided to him happily and took his accustomed perch on his shoulder, and they set out of the pine grove. 

They were passing the last trees when Goku stopped dead in his tracks, as if he had hit an unseen wall. "Goku?" Hakkai asked, familiar with his friend's finely tuned perception. He listened for something approaching, but heard only the trees fighting against the wind. That rustle, and something else, a rumbling like a distant, powerful engine, and growing. 

"Sanzo!" Goku hollered, without warning, and then he sprang up, straight into the air like a panther into the upper branches of the closet pine. 

"Goku?" Hakkai demanded, staring up into the tree. Through the darkness he could see Goku climbing like the wind, the black silhouette of his head turning against the charcoal sky as he looked around from his heightened vantage point. "What do you see?" The rumbling was becoming louder, until the ground was shaking under him. 

"Hakkai!" Goku shouted down, "_watch out!_" 

Too late, Hakkai turned. In the darkness, the white and gray rushing toward him looked like nothing so much as the mountainside itself, rising up to strike him. Without the time to concentrate and summon a barrier, he leapt after Goku, but before he could grab the lowest branch the avalanche swept over him, pummeling him down with a giant fist of snow. 

"_Hakkai!_" he heard Goku scream over the deafening roar, and then he was buried. 

* * *

to be continued... 

Meant to post this Friday, but ff.net...intervened. My apologies! Glad folks liked the Sanzo-Gojyo interaction in the last chapter; I have fun writing those two. And big hugs and nikuman to all my reviewers - I wouldn't be posting this fast without such wonderful encouragement. 


	6. Part the Sixth

Gojyo came awake expecting to die. The rumbling thunder rocking the cave sounded like the end of the world, and he instinctively curled into a ball under the pointless protection of the blankets. Bits of shale flaked off the cave ceiling and rained onto his shoulders. And then, like that, it was over, utter silence in its wake. 

Cautiously he blinked, unrolled himself and pushed back the covers. The cave was empty, and shadowed, with the fire burning low. Gojyo blew on it to goad the embers into flame, groped around the wood pile for another log to add. 

Wait a minute. Empty? He looked around the stone shelter. It was perhaps fifteen paces from one wall to another, and even the farthest wall was lit by the flame's dull orange. He saw the log door, rocks, the woodpile, his pack, his clothes drying by the fire. No blond bastard of a monk in sight. "Sanzo?" 

A fragment of memory crossed his mind, half-awaking to the scraping of the door opening, cold air on his face, and then quiet again. How long ago had that been? Minutes, hours, he had no idea. His clothes were dry, and he dressed hurriedly. What the hell had awoken him? Just a dream, or something outside? Standing made him dizzy, and he put his hand to the cave wall for support. "Stupid monk," he muttered as he pulled on his pants, "left me alone, couldn't wait, again with the damn heroics..." 

The log door didn't budge when he tugged at it, but bracing his back against the wall he managed to slide it a couple feet aside. Loose snow spilled in; it was halfway past the height of the door, packed in semi-solid chunks. Gojyo climbed over it, out onto the mountainside, then leaned against the rock to catch his breath. His head had been spinning like a top, and now it was only lazily whirling like a leaf in a current, which he supposed was a good sign. 

The dark sky showed stars through a patchwork of clouds, and the half-moon shone through a gauzy mist, glowing palely over the mountainside. The snow didn't look newly-fallen, but was broken and choppy as frozen whitewater, stained with rocks and dirt. And the night was quiet, utterly still, as if even the wind were holding its breath. 

So that had been the noise. Avalanche. 

And his three comrades could have been right in its path. 

Ignoring all common sense about starting more avalanches, or drawing attention to oneself when one knows there is a dangerous youkai in the vicinity, Gojyo threw back his head and bellowed into the motionless night, "Sanzo! Goku! Hakkai!!" 

Not so much as an owl answered. He might have been alone in the universe. 

For a moment he thought he might just fall back into the snow. A needle in a haystack...nothing compared to a search of this mountain. Not by himself, not without the slightest hint of where to begin. If Sanzo had waited...the cave might have been the only safe place on the whole fucking mountain... 

_BANG_. 

The gunshot shattered the quiet, ringing in his eardrums and smashing aside all doubt. No ice cracking, that. In desert or forest or village inn, he had heard that sound too many times to mistake it. He recognized it now for what it was, not an attack but a signal. 

A signal, and a warning shot, sure as all the bullets that had been fired past his head uncountable times before. From Sanzo's gun to his ears--_Find me, or else._

Well, he did owe the monk. Gojyo found himself almost grinning as he fought his way through the snow. _Sit tight, Sanzo-sama. I'm coming. _

He would find all of them. If Sanzo had made it, so must have Goku and Hakkai. Not just because he wanted it so. This was simply the way it had to be. 

* * * 

Snow poured down the mountainside like a flood from a broken dam, the tall pines bending and swaying wildly in its wake while the smaller trees were ripped up by the roots. Goku didn't bother waiting for the thunder to die away. As soon as the frozen tsunami had crashed past the tree he perched in, he leapt from the safety of its branches to where Hakkai had been swept along, and began pawing frantically through the snow. 

Above, he heard a distinctive "Kyuu!", and Hakuryuu glided down. The little dragon had fought to stay with its master, but Hakkai had thrown his friend up into the air as the avalanche struck. Now the dragon unerringly zipped to a pile of snow and began scratching with its tiny claws. It had been in a better position to see where he had fallen, Goku realized, and joined Hakuryuu's efforts. 

Within a minute he had cleared enough away to see a scrap of green shirt, and five after that he had completely uncovered Hakkai. But the older youkai didn't answer shouts of his name, or Hakuryuu's plaintive cries. He lay on his side in the snow, limp and unmoving even when Goku took his shoulder and shook him. Had Goku not been able to faintly hear him breathe, he might not have believed him alive at all. And was it his imagination or were those breaths coming slower and shallower even as he listened? "Hakkai..." 

_All right. _ Think, _Goku_. What would Hakkai do? Only that was no help--he already knew what Hakkai would do, which was to lie there in the snow doing a remarkable impression of a dying man. 

Sanzo, then. Sanzo was easier; he always knew what Sanzo would do. Usually it involved either his gun or his fan. Goku could almost feel the harisen crashing down on his head. _Bakazaru! Figure out how he's hurt and do something about it! _

But what could he do? Hakkai didn't seem to be bleeding--that was good. If he wasn't bleeding then it was safer to move him. Move him where, though? He had no idea where the hunter's shelter was; it could be on another mountain entirely. Trekking back to the inn would take...a day or two at least; they had driven Hakuryuu for a couple hours before the mountain became too steep. And he didn't even know where Sanzo or Gojyo were. 

_Idiot!_ Sanzo grumbled, in his head. _Can't you concentrate? Help Hakkai! _

_But I don't know how! Hakkai won't wake up, and there's a youkai out there..._

_Stupid ape! _He could almost hear the gun being cocked-- 

The bang thundered over the mountainside, echoed off the stone. It wasn't a normal explosion, but the distinctive resonance of a unique weapon. Goku would know that gunshot anywhere. "Sanzo!" 

Bending down, Goku heaved Hakkai over his shoulder. He had heard exactly where the shot had originated, could track it as surely as a bat follows its squeaks. He knew, too that it could only mean trouble. Hakkai's arms hanging down his back and Hakuryuu gliding in anxious circles overhead, Goku pushed through the snow, up the mountainside, forging through the night toward Sanzo's signal. He reached where the river had been, but the flat expanse was mounded high with the avalanche's mass. No way to guess how sturdy the ice was below it. He crossed as quickly as he could, stepping from one clump of churned-up snow to another. When he miscalculated he sank into the softer patches, sometimes past his waist, and had to thrash free. 

And Hakkai's head bumped limply against his shoulder all the while. "It's gonna be okay," Goku told him, even as he reached the other side of the river and began to drag them both uphill again. "We're doing fine." Which might not be true, but it was the kind of thing Hakkai might say to him. 

He heard him before he saw him, the shush of snow sliding down the mountain. Clambered over a rock, and there was Gojyo, on his knees, his back to Goku, digging in the snow like some lanky, crimson-haired dog. And in the hole, pale robes and a blond head--"Sanzo!" 

Gojyo jerked up, falling back on his rear as his face broke into a grin. "Goku!" The smile died instantly as he saw Goku's burden. "Hakkai? What--" 

"He got caught in the snowslide," Goku said, panting for breath. "He won't wake up--Sanzo?" 

"He's out, but he must've been awake to fire the gun. Lucky for him, too, lead me right to him." Gojyo shifted Hakkai off Goku's back, lowered him gently to the ground and cradled his head, stared down at his closed eyes. "You heard it?" 

Goku nodded, crouching in the snow. Sanzo's arm was crossed over his chest, the revolver still clutched in his fist. He must have had it out already when the avalanche hit. Goku shook his shoulder. "Sanzo? Sanzo?" 

Getting no response, he locked his arms under the monk's and heaved up. As he was yanked from the snow, Sanzo groaned. 

"Sanzo!" 

"...noisy..._bakazaru_." 

Goku grinned, then winced as Sanzo hissed, an involuntary exclamation of pain. "Sanzo?" 

Violet eyes opened a fraction. "Goku? Found you..." 

"They found us, more like," Gojyo said. 

"Gojyo." Sanzo's gaze slid over to him, widened. "Hakkai--" He made to stand up, only to collapse back against Goku with a curse through a clenched jaw. "What's wrong with him?" 

"Knocked out, I guess." Gojyo studied the monk. "What's wrong with you?" 

Sanzo tried to stand again, with as little success. "...damn leg." 

"Broken?" Gojyo rolled his eyes. "Wonderful. Dammit. Come on, Goku, we gotta get these guys inside. The shelter's just a couple hundred feet uphill." He struggled up, Hakkai in his arms, only to stumble to his knees. 

"Gojyo?" 

"You handle Sanzo," Gojyo said, gritting his teeth. "We're fine." He shifted Hakkai over his shoulder, shakily stood again. "Follow me." And he began to tramp uphill. 

"Idiot," Goku heard Sanzo mutter, but when he looked over, the monk's head was drooping, and he was wearily listing to the side, not even seeming to notice he was propped up by Goku's shoulder. 

"Let's go, Sanzo," Goku said, and dragging the taller man more or less to his feet, they headed after Gojyo. 

* * * 

As soon as they were all off this mountain and safely on their way West again, Gojyo decided, he was going to kill them all. Starting with Sanzo. Damn moronic monk, wandering around outside in an avalanche and getting his leg broke. He must be in agony, if he didn't even protest Goku's support. And once back inside the cave he folded against the wall, his head down so that his gold hair shadowed his eyes, ignoring Goku pleading his name. Maybe sleeping. Maybe just trying to stay conscious. At any rate, not a big help. 

And then, Hakkai...Hakkai wasn't even faking being awake. Gojyo laid him on the blankets by the fire, covered him snugly, and Hakuryuu curled into a ball at his feet. There was a lump on the back of his head, but Gojyo wasn't sure that was what had him down. Had he been under the snow long enough to suffocate? Or was he just freezing? Definite sympathy for that, Gojyo had. But his skin was warm to the touch. At least to Gojyo's hands, though he wasn't sure that was the best indicator, given that he was still shivering at occasional intervals. "Oi, Goku. Come here." 

Reluctantly Goku scooted away from Sanzo's side, peered down anxiously at Hakkai. "Does he feel cold to you?" Gojyo asked. 

Goku touched his forehead, shrugged. "I dunno. Not any colder than me. What's wrong with him?" 

"The hell should I know? He's the one who's supposed to be fixing us. Not vice versa." At Goku's suddenly stricken look, the half-youkai sighed. "Not your fault, saru, I know. You did good, getting him here. But neither of us are nurses." Automatically reaching into his pockets, he remembered his cigarettes were MIA and balled his hands into fists instead. Dammit, all those times he had been patched up, had seen Hakkai and other healers fix up all of them...he could have paid a little more attention, but it never occurred to him at the time. They had a healer, after all. Never mind that really each of them should be versed in everything they needed to survive this jaunt; relying on others was always dangerous... 

"Sanzo can help," Goku stated, with the absolute confidence he always put in the monk. He looked hopefully across the cave. "Ne, Sanzo?" 

He got no answer. Sanzo must have lost his own battle with unconsciousness. Peachy, because the kid was right, Sanzo at least knew the basics of first aid. Sanzo always did watch the doctors like a hawk, never really trusting anyone to know or do anything. And damn him, Gojyo had come to count on the bastard for just that self-sufficiency. When the chips were down, Sanzo came through. For himself, and the rest of them. 

Looked like he had finally reached his limit, though. Gojyo crossed over to him, tapped the bamboo breastplate. "Hey, Sanzo-sama. You with us?" 

The purple eyes were closed, but his mouth moved reflexively. "Shut...up." 

"I'll take that as a no." Gojyo frowned down at the monk's injured leg, stretched out before him. A rough splint he thought he could manage. 

Goku had already brought over a long, straight branch from the firewood pile, and now fetched a roll of bandages from Hakkai's pack. "I'll hold him," the kid said. "You wrap it." 

Which they proceeded to do. Sanzo's sharp grunt when Gojyo touched his shin was more telling than a scream, but by the time they were done he was silent. Leaving Goku beside the slumped blond, Gojyo turned back to their other comrade. 

You could always tell the difference between Hakkai sleeping and Hakkai completely out. Sleeping, he still had traces of his customary smile, unless he was dreaming, and then his expression might be terrible to behold. But totally unconscious, everything went away, smiles and anger alike, stripping him back to the innocence of Cho Gonou, before he had lost everything, before he had had anything to lose. Not childlike, exactly, but empty. Three years ago Gojyo had studied that face for a week, wondering if he had imagined how green those eyes had been...and then they had opened and proved memory a poor substitute... 

But they were closed now. Gojyo smoothed the brown hair back from his forehead, examined Hakkai's pale visage. He looked so...unguarded. Not even his impenetrable smile to protect him. "C'mon," Gojyo murmured, "get up, you never sleep in. Don't make me worry about you, you're always so guilty about doing that, and then you just keep doing it..." 

"He thought you could be dead," Goku said softly. 

Gojyo's head jerked up. "What?" 

"You and Sanzo...there was a hole in the ice over the river. Hakkai found your hat...his hat. He thought you both maybe drowned." 

"Shit." Gojyo's hand went to his head, raked through the tangles in his long hair. He hadn't even realized he had lost the hat. "Nearly did. I fell in, but the monk there didn't let me." 

Goku nodded. "I knew he wouldn't. But Hakkai...he doesn't like to believe things. Unless he knows for sure. He was really scared about you guys...you worry him a lot, too, Gojyo." He ducked his head. "_Are_ you okay?" 

"Hey, what's this?" Gojyo knuckled the younger youkai's head. "I worried the bakazaru, too?" 

Goku batted his hand away. "Why would I worry about a cockroach?" 

"'Cause he's so damn sexy?" 

"Ero-kappa! You always need a cold shower anyway!" 

Gojyo shivered in spite of himself. "Not that cold..." 

"Sanzo wouldn't have let you die." The childish outrage was gone; Goku sounded as fierce as his other self. "Even if he says all that stuff. He never would." 

_Then why're we always the ones pulling_ his _ass out of the fire?_ Gojyo didn't say it aloud, only glanced at the blond leaning against the cave wall. Thought of rainy nights and a burning desert and why Sanzo had been out in that avalanche at all, instead of safe in the cave. Even if the monk wouldn't admit it in a million years. 

"Gojyo..." Again with his name. It sounded unnatural, the kid saying it, especially so seriously. "How much better are you?" 

"What are you talking about? Little dip in a pond couldn't hurt me." 

"Are you really one hundred percent?" Gold eyes searched him, a more piercing scrutiny than Goku usually seemed capable. 

Gojyo squirmed under it. "Pretty much. Good night's sleep--good night in bed," and he leered, "I'll be fine." 

"You might not get that." Goku cocked his head as if listening to the quiet outside the cave. 

Gojyo went still. "The youkai." 

"Or whatever it is." 

"Sanzo thought it was a youkai. Though it's a pretty damn strong one, if he whipped up that blizzard." 

"Yes. And the avalanche." Goku glanced over at Sanzo, past Gojyo to Hakkai. 

"I can fight," Gojyo said firmly. "We'll protect them." He leaned back against the rock between the two, put his hands behind his head and tried not to show how bothered he was by Goku's too-serious demeanor. Not even a mention of how hungry he must be, and the look in his eyes...it wasn't that it was old, so much as mature. A warrior's sharp gaze, nothing like the kid he usually squabbled with. Though equally unlike the monstrosity he became without his diadem, to Gojyo's relief. "It might be okay. Maybe the guy's getting bored and he'll leave us alone..." 

"No." Goku's voice prodded Gojyo into standing before he even heard the rest. "He's coming now." 

"What?" 

"I can hear him out there." 

Gojyo listened, heard nothing. But Goku nearly always was the first one to sense an attack. Out of the frying pan, into the fire, which was actually where Gojyo would prefer to be. He still was chilly... The half-youkai grinned toothily, shoved red hair out of his eyes and picked up his shakujou. "Then I guess we're in for a fight." 

"Uh-huh." 

Gojyo would have felt a lot better if Goku had sounded as irritatingly eager as he usually did when the possibility of battle arose. Red eyes flicked over the kid, appraised his set stance and the look in his eyes. "Goku." 

"Yeah?" 

"Just want to make this clear now. Whatever happens, that crown you got? Stays on your head." 

"But--" 

"Swear it. It's been a hell of a night already, and I ain't dealing with you psycho. You take off the limiter and I'll--I won't stop you." 

Goku's eyes were wide enough that Gojyo could see the fire reflected in them. Then they closed, and the brown head nodded. "I promise." 

"Good." 

"Gojyo?" 

"Eh?" 

"It's here." 

With that, the heavy log door was wrenched away from the mouth of the cave, tossed aside as if it had been a paper screen, and a freezing blast of wind extinguished the fire, plunging them into chill darkness. 

* * *

To be continued... 

Winding up to the climax here! As always, thanks so much for the reviews. UltraM, Shiroki Kietsuki, Krimson, glad you liked the Gojyo-Sanzo bits...as I said before, I get a kick out of writing them. Gojyo's more perceptive than he lets on...for a playboy gambler, he spends quite a lot of time just thinking. 

And since a few have sounded worried - this is a little spoiler for the story, but for the record, I'm one of those who can be easily depressed by what she reads, and hence I wouldn't kill the boys without sufficient warning for readers like me. I won't say I'd never do death fic, but overall, I like happy endings as much as I like angst and random torture. ^_^ And ayie@Hairi, I can't do _too_ bad things to Hakkai - he's my sis's favorite as well; she would kill me if I killed him! 


	7. Part the Seventh

Goku liked to fight. He loved how battle made his heart pound, filled his blood with energy. He loved the competition, pushing yourself, striving against your own body as much as your opponent, how it forced out strength you didn't even know you had until it moved you. There were times it frightened him a little, because he knew some of the pleasure was the battlelust of his other self. Seiten Taisei Son Goku, godling of earth itself, who would charge until all life was gone to reach the purest victory. But most of the enjoyment he knew was his own, plain old Goku, the hungry monkeyboy. 

He loved to fight, but not like this. Not when there was more at stake than his own triumph or defeat. Sanzo hurt--Sanzo was too often hurt, since they had begun this journey--and Hakkai too--why hadn't he woken up yet--and Gojyo to boot, who was pretending everything was fine, even as he leaned on his shakujou too heavily for it to merely be a cocky pose. 

With the fire out, the cave's darkness was deeper than the night outside, but the wind blew so hard that he could barely see anything anyway. Over its howls, he could hear, as he had already, the lightest crunch of footsteps on the broken snow, an unhurried approach. Goku wanted to scream, wanted to rush outside to confront the coming monster head-on, but it wasn't worth the risk of leaving the cave's shelter, however meager it was without the door. The elements of the mountain were under this youkai's control, and one always tried to fight in a neutral arena. 

A slim silhouette cut off a little of the sky visible through the mouth of the cave. It stopped at the entrance, and Goku braced himself, felt more than saw Gojyo do the same. The moonglow off the snow brightened, as if the clouds had moved away, and that pale shimmer illuminated her. 

He heard Gojyo's quiet exhalation, the hiss of a disbelieving oath, but for once Goku could not fault him. She was beautiful, like no woman he had seen before, beautiful as iced branches sparkling in the sunlight after a storm, beautiful like the captured serenity of a frozen waterfall. Whitest hair cascaded down over skin clear and fair as fresh snow in dawn's rose light, fine silver brows arching over eyes blue like the deepest waters of the sea. She was no taller than Goku, with a woman's shape but slender as a child, and her ears rose into high, delicate points. She was youkai, by those ears, and the star-slit pupils of her midnight eyes. 

She was youkai, and dangerous, and her pale, pale lips were drawn up in a terrible smile. 

"YAAH!" Goku yelled, and threw a punch at her with his whole body behind it, but she slid out from his attack like water and glided into the cavern. As Gojyo raised his shakujou, she brushed the metal rod with her long fingers. Ice crackled, and when he brought it down, the pole shattered like glass against the stone floor. And then her slender hands closed around Sanzo's neck, brutally shoving him against the cave wall, while she examined his features like a mantis inspecting its prey. 

"Before you killed me, I could freeze his throat so he would never draw breath again," she said, and her soft alto was as lovely and cruel as her smile. The voice in the wind, and Goku halted, two feet from her, his fists clenched, but impotent. "You might try it," she continued. "You may slay me even before he dies." 

Sanzo hung in her grasp, limp and helpless. Goku growled, scarcely realizing that rumble came from his own throat until Gojyo had laid a hand on his shoulder. "Why not just kill us now, then?" and the half-youkai's voice was steel. "What do you want?" 

"Kill you," she said, thoughtfully. "Should I waste further effort, when two of you are halfway there already?" 

Her dark gaze angled down at Hakkai, and now it was Goku who had to hold Gojyo back. "Damn you," he seethed, red eyes blazing, "what are you doing? Who are you working for? Kougaiji? Gyokumen?" 

At that she laughed, the ring of water rippling through ice chasms. "I? A servant? From the moment of my birth I've had loyalty to no one except my own self!" 

"Bitch," snarled a different voice, "that's our line," and then Sanzo's arm came up, so the sleeve fell back and revealed the revolver in his hand, muzzle aimed square at her chest. The gun thundered, once, twice, thrice-- 

Three bullets lodged into the wall of the cave, and before any chips of stone fell she had risen from where she had thrown herself, ripped the gun from his hand and tossed it aside. But Goku was in motion by then, and as she kicked Sanzo down, he barreled into her, knocked her to the ground and pulled back his fist to pulp her crystal beauty. 

"Goku! Stop!" Gojyo's sharp cry paralyzed him, so insistent was it, and panicked. 

"Foolish," she hissed, still smiling as she stared up at Goku, even as he knelt over her, ready to pound her into the rock. "Weak." 

Her white hair pooled beneath her head against the stone, and from it rose a different white, ice crystals climbing the walls like a backwards spring. He followed the moonlit trail with his eyes, up the stone arching into the ceiling, where the frost dripped down again, into an icicle as long and lethally sharp as a sword, suspended a yard directly above Hakkai's heart. 

"What do you want?" Gojyo asked again, and now he failed to hide the desperation. 

"Kill her." Sanzo's voice was a hoarse rasp as he picked himself off the floor, pain evident in every motion. "She's supposed to be dead. All her kind, centuries ago. Those the humans didn't finish off, the youkai did." 

"But..." Goku stared down at the slit eyes, the pointed ears. "Isn't she a youkai?" 

"Yes." She laughed again, and the sound ached like the cold. "One of the eldest breeds, but those younger, who wished peace with each other, with humans--they found us detrimental. Kill me, boy; enough of my kin died at the hands of those who shared our nature." She smiled wider. "Kill me, and you win, with that one," her eyes flicked back to Hakkai and the death hanging over him, "the only loss." 

"Kill her," Sanzo commanded, so harshly it was a snarl, but Goku glanced at the icicle, at Hakkai, lying there unmoving, unaware. Slowly he stood and backed away from the demoness. She rose, gracefully, delicate face turning to follow his line of sight, and then her eyes narrowed slightly. 

With a crackle, the icicle broke, plummeting down. Gojyo, who out of Goku's sight had sidled close, sprang forward, tackling Hakkai and rolling them both out of the ice blade's deadly path. The knifelike tip grazed his cheek, drawing blood to match his hair, and then it smashed to fragments against the stone, Gojyo hunching over Hakkai's body to shield him from the flying crystal. 

"_Bakazaru_!" Sanzo had never sounded so angry, as far as Goku could remember. "That was our chance--" His fury was choked off in a gasp of pain as she put her foot on his splinted leg and bore down on it. When he slumped this time, Goku knew the monk's blackout wasn't feigned. 

Before he could lunge for her, she raised her hand to her mouth, drew it away as if blowing a kiss. Goku tried to move, only to find his feet fused to the ground. He looked down to see a web of ice, silvery in the moonlight, biting into the stone and curling up his legs, locking him in place. "What the--!" 

As the crystals climbed higher, he bent, smashed his fist against the ice encasing him. Some rained down, but there was more spreading, over his fist and up his arm, and then he felt the freeze against his neck, his chin, burning his lips. 

"Goku!" Gojyo hollered, leaving Hakkai huddled against the wall to rush to his side. Not as dumb as he looked, the half-youkai stopped before trying to break the ice cocoon with his hands or boots, and risk getting trapped as well. Instead he glared at the white-haired demoness. "Why don't you just get it over with? What the hell are you after?" 

Just as Goku felt the frost leech through his closed mouth and sear his tongue, it melted away, retreated from his skin until only his legs were still imprisoned. She was watching them, and with the moonlight on her face, he could see clear amusement in her gaze. Enjoyment, but not the insanity of the youkai lost to the Minus Wave. She did this of her own volition. 

"I brought the blizzard against you, as I greet anyone who breaches my new kingdom, but when you were neither conquered nor driven back, I looked at you more closely," she said with lazy confidence. "Most of the youkai now are no better than mindless beasts, and while that meant I dared emerge from hiding--since none of them care to stop me now--they're boring in their brute madness. But you...you are special. 

"I made to divide you, but finally I realized you're more vulnerable like this. Apart, you'd each fight me until the end; together, you are manipulated. Weak. But still dangerous enough to entertain me, and you have. For that, and the pleasure of knowing a few of our kind still have reason--I'll bargain your freedom. I'll let you cross the pass and leave these mountains. You'll be able to help him, I'm sure," and she angled her chin at Hakkai. 

"So what would be the bargain?" Gojyo demanded. 

"Just two conditions. The first, that once you leave here you don't return, nor tell anyone what you saw. It would be a shame to have to bring such an ancient mountain down on top of an avenging army." 

"And the other?" 

Pale lips drew back from gleaming teeth. "I keep the human." 

"Sanzo?!" 

"Don't tell me you've heard that old eat-a-Sanzo-for-immortality saw, too," groaned Gojyo. 

She laughed. "Eat him? Hardly. My ice is my eternity, and I would share it with him. His is a rare beauty, for a human thing. A bearing all of power and coldness, but such a fragile being, all the same. I would keep it for myself, preserved always, to admire and...enjoy." She trailed her fingers through his golden hair. 

Gojyo looked at her, at Sanzo beneath her. Looked at Goku. Then, out of her line of sight, he winked at Goku, before he turned back to her with a fierce grin and said, "Okay. Let's deal." 

* * *

to be continued... 

Ahh, ff.net is eating my reviews, not letting me see the newest ones! Nasty ff.net! Give them backs to me! My preciouses... 

Short chapter, but I couldn't keep y'all on a cliffhanger forever, could I? Hope you enjoyed...dang action sequences! I like writing a serious Goku, K.Firefly; he does have a mature side, even if you don't see it often. And Umi-chan, yep, my favorite part of Saiyuki is undeniably the relationship between the four boys. Even if they don't want to admit that anything's there. ^_^ 


	8. Part the Last

My apologies for the delay...my computer conspired with everything else to keep me from posting the end, but I prevailed! 

* * *

For Sanzo, the return to awareness yet again was an exercise in sheer willpower. He heard Goku yelp his name--it was extremely irritating how his subconscious invariably responded to that trigger--and Gojyo say something else, and then he felt her touch, like an icy draft running through his hair. It took everything he had not to gasp as her fingers brushed his earlobe. 

Cautiously he cracked open his eyes a fraction. She was standing over him, but looking at Gojyo. The redhead smirked back at her cockily, leaning at a jaunty angle with his arms crossed, his garish charm dialed to maximum. "Okay," he said. "Let's deal." 

Scarlet eyes dropped down to Sanzo, but if Gojyo noticed he was awake he gave no sign. His mouth twisted a little as he went on, "But not him. Here's the bargain. You let the three of them go--the monkey, the monk, and the other guy. You let them get out of here, and I stay with you. I'll guarantee, I'll be more fun than the ugly monk here. He'd bite his tongue and bleed to death before he let you enjoy yourself. Me...I know how to satisfy a woman." 

Sanzo couldn't speak; it was difficult even to breathe. He could only watch as the demoness glided from his side to Gojyo. Slender fingers reached up to stroke the halfbreed's cheek, caressing the double scar, then knotted in his hair and yanked him to his knees. 

"Like flame," she murmured, musingly, twirling the scarlet strands between her fingers. "Fire as my pet...there was one of us once who owned a phoenix, so the legends say. You're hardly so powerful." She traced his neck with crystal-sharp nails, and Sanzo could see Gojyo tremble, though he did not resist. "But...almost as beautiful." 

"It's a deal, then?" Gojyo's voice was too strained to have the flirtatious note he was trying for. 

She considered for a moment, then nodded. "A deal." Inclining her head toward Goku without releasing her grip on the crimson hair, she said, "You may leave with your human and the other." 

Sanzo knew what the ape's answer to that would be. _No way!_

"Okay," said Goku. 

_The hell?!_

As Sanzo stared in disbelief, Goku went to Hakkai, picked him up and carried him out of the cave. Then he returned, passing Gojyo and the snow-haired youkai without even glancing at the midnight eyes studying him with such cold amusement. He bent to put his arms around Sanzo, asked quietly, "Can you walk?" 

"What are you--" Getting pulled to his feet shot agony through his leg, so severe that he nearly blacked out again. By the time the blinding stars receded from his vision, Goku had dragged him to the mouth of the cave. 

"What the hell are you doing?" Sanzo cuffed him hard, jerked away to go back inside, but the movement jarred his broken bone. He would have stumbled, but Goku caught him. 

"No, Sanzo, stay out here." He prodded the monk another couple steps forward, then carefully lowered him to the snow, beside where Hakkai lay, Hakuryuu keeping vigil. "It's cold but it's safer." 

"_Safer?_ Stupid ape--don't you understand? Even if she doesn't betray us, she'll kill him--" 

"Sanzo," Goku whispered in his ear, "just stay calm. It'll be okay." 

If he twisted his head, he could see into the cave, the moonlight shining on snow-white hair hanging over blood-red. Her head came up, met Sanzo's eyes across the darkness, and she smiled, pure, vicious triumph. Then she bent over Gojyo again, and his scream rent the night. 

"_No_," Sanzo gasped, struggling to rise, and then he realized Goku was no longer at his side. That Goku was crouching low in the snow, bracing himself with his fists thrust out before him. 

"Nyoibou," he shouted, "_extend_!" 

The staff glowed into being in his hands, lengthened and kept growing, past the possible limits of a normal weapon, the end shooting out like a bolt of lightning. Into the cave, and Goku had aimed perfectly. It slammed into her ribcage and smashed her into the far wall, white hair a whirling cloud around her. 

Before it could settle, Gojyo strode forward, planted his boot against her neck. Sanzo saw the gleam of metal in his hand, recognized it in a flash--he must have grabbed it from the ground when he had tackled Hakkai-- 

She saw it, too, and her red mouth opened in a scream, but before it sounded, Gojyo had pulled the trigger. 

The percussion of the gunshot shook snow from the rocks above down onto him. A wind howled over the mountainside, a rising, terrible shriek, like a wail of anguish, blowing so hard that it deafened and blinded him. He threw himself over Hakkai to protect him from its rage, as it tore at his robes and slashed at his face with ice. 

Then it had passed. The first thing he heard was Goku's worried, "Sanzo?" 

Sanzo opened his eyes, looked down and saw emerald peering up at him curiously. "Sanzo?" Hakkai inquired, a little dazedly, and then he blinked. "Sanzo!" He looked over Sanzo's shoulder and his face broke into a smile wide even by his standards. "Gojyo!" 

"That's the name, don't wear it out." Gojyo took another step out of the cave mouth, then sat in the snow abruptly, as if going any further was more effort than he could be bothered with. "You okay?" 

"Hakkai, you're all right?" Goku asked, bounding over the drifts more like a rabbit than a monkey. 

Sitting up, Hakkai looked around at them. "Apparently we all are?" 

"Yup. And there's one less youkai to worry about in these parts. Here, monk," and Gojyo tossed over the revolver. "I'll pay you back for the bullet at the next town." 

Sanzo caught the gun, barely, fumbling with his frozen fingers, then did drop it as the motion jolted his leg again. Hissing with frustration as much as pain, he snatched it off the snow and stowed it away in his sleeve. 

"Sanzo, you're hurt?" Hakkai asked, all too attentive. "Let me see." 

"Care for yourself first," Sanzo snapped, "you're the one who's been out for an hour." 

"I'm all right." 

"Except you got a bump on your noggin the size of an egg," Gojyo said, picking himself up off the ground to make it the rest of the way over to them. 

Hakkai put his hand behind his head with an embarrassed chuckle. "Well, a little, but that wasn't really it. When the avalanche hit me, I...it's been something I've been trying lately, to see if I can heal myself faster, if I put all my energy on that. A form of meditation, actually. When I was buried, I...panicked a little, and I guess I withdrew too much...some animals do it, to conserve themselves when it's too cold..." 

"You were _hibernating_?" Gojyo poked his shoulder. "What are you, a grizzly bear?" 

"Better than a cockroach," Goku mumbled. 

"Or a monkey!" 

"Let me see that leg, Sanzo," Hakkai said cheerily, pushing up the monk's robes. "Hmm, looks like a clean break, but it still shouldn't be moved. I suppose there wasn't much choice...that's a good splint, Gojyo." 

"Thanks. How'd you know--" 

"I must figure out how to further accelerate bone knitting, there must be a better way..." 

"Don't push yourself too hard. We've still got a walk ahead of us." 

"You really shouldn't be walking on this." 

"Then I'll crawl," growled Sanzo. "We're getting off this damn mountain." 

And none of them had anything to say against that. 

* * * 

In the end, they made it over the pass right as the gray sky began to show the first pallid pink of dawn. Hakkai served as Sanzo's crutch, and their pace was better than might be expected; the monk wasn't one to let a little thing like a fractured fibula slow him down. Gojyo and Goku forged a way through the snow for them, though Goku in front did the most work. Gojyo was glad enough not to be going any faster. He still felt a bit light-headed, not even minding when Goku drifted back or Hakkai reached forward to give him a little nudge back on track. 

At last they reached the end of the slope, and stood there on the dip between the two ridges, looking down into the silent, white valley spreading below. The wind had died, and without its racket one could just hear the faint, steady rhythm of dripping water. "It's warming up," Hakkai said. 

"The blizzards are over," Sanzo said, sounding exhausted and out of breath and out of sorts enough that there couldn't be anything seriously wrong with him. "It's supposed to be spring here." 

"But the snow's so pretty," Goku remarked. 

"Like she was," said Gojyo, and shivered. Still a little cold. He was already forgetting the freezing burn of her fingers against his cheek. 

Goku cocked his head thoughtfully, then shook it. "Nah. I mean, she was. But not like this." 

The dark of trees weighted down by snow showed through the white, dotted across an otherwise smooth landscape, jagged ranges softened into endless serene curves. And everything was shaded in dawn pastels, neither cool nor warm, but gentle. "I guess it is," Gojyo conceded, and they started down. 

By the time the first rays of the sun hit the valley, they had reached a track wide enough that Hakkai thought Hakuryuu could handle it even with the snow. The dragon agreed, and as the sun broke free of the mountains to ascend alone into the sky, they piled into their usual positions in the jeep. Arranging Sanzo so his leg could be comfortable took a couple minutes, as neither Goku nor Gojyo were eager to sacrifice their own precious legroom to his seat being pushed all the way back, but they finally reached a compromise. 

Once they were on their way, Goku fell asleep almost immediately, his head rocked back on the seat and snoring. Gojyo moved to jostle him awake and end the racket, but was stopped by the unmistakable click of a cocking revolver. 

"Wake the _saru_ and die," Sanzo said. 

"He had a long night," Hakkai agreed. 

"_Ch'_. I just want some quiet until he gets fed," Sanzo returned, closing his eyes. 

"Of course," said Hakkai. 

Gojyo rolled his eyes, settled back comfortably against the seat and let the wind blow through his hair. It felt good on his face, not too cold. After a few minutes he noticed something was lacking, reached into his pockets. Swore when he realized his pack was still gone. "Oi, monk." 

Sanzo cracked a violet eye and glanced back. 

A lot of the irritation usually in his expression was overwritten by pain. The bumping of the jeep over the rough road was probably killing his leg. Hakkai was right. It had been a damn long night. Gojyo ducked his head, shrugged. "Nothing. Never mind." 

He leaned back again, looked out over the mountainside. In a few days the snow would be gone, but this morning it shone like diamonds in the sun. 

"Idiot," Sanzo muttered suddenly, apropos to nothing, and then Gojyo had a cigarette shoved into his hand. 

"Thanks," he said automatically. 

Sanzo snorted. "You got your lighter?" 

"That, yeah." Gojyo pulled out the Zippo, flicked the flame to life, and Sanzo reached back to extend another cigarette toward him. 

"Where's yours?" 

"Out of fuel." 

Gojyo lit the monk's, grinning. "Sanzo-sama needs me after all!" 

"Don't push your luck." Sanzo took a long drag, settled back into his seat. 

"Perhaps you should have claimed the lighter when you had the chance," Hakkai remarked. 

"Perhaps." 

"_Hakkai!_ Whose side are you on?" 

But Hakkai only smiled and stepped on the gas, as they continued to speed away from the rising sun. 

owari 

* * *

Because a couple folks seemed curious - the youkai is of a race of my own creation, from a fantasy novel yet to be completed. I needed a villain, and wanted to play with them more. Anone - smarm? Are you a Western fandom fan, by any chance? I don't know if I've ever encountered that term in otakudom...but I was a smarm fan long before I saw any anime ^^ K.Firefly, the summary is indeed a parody of the old cliche 'into every life a little rain must fall'...I'm not sure if that line originated in the song you mentioned; I wasn't aware of it, at any rate. Big thanks to all my fabulous reviewers - you guys rock! Been a while since I've gotten so many great, thoughtful comments - felt like y'all were really reading & enjoying it, and that's the biggest reward an author can get. 

This is the point I was supposed to say, thanks for coming, and cheerily exit stage left. Just one h/c fic for my sister, and I retire...but Saiyuki has its claws in me deeper than I suspected, and I'm afraid that in the near future I might be back to inflict more pain on the boys. Poor things. But they're so cute when they're in trouble... 


End file.
